Education & Training National Success Rates Tables for the Academic Year 2011/12

Frequently Asked Questions

1. **What is new in the 2011/12 Tables?**

The changes to the Education & Training National Success Rate Tables from 2010/11 are:

**a) Data Changes**

- Success rates data for 2011/12 have been added to the tables, and data for 2008/09 has been removed.

**b) Presentational Changes**

i) The names of the provider groups have been changed to use the wording used in the Statistical First Release. The column name has been changed to 'Institution Type'

ii) Except on the Institution worksheets the first three columns on all worksheets have been changed to be Institution Type, Year and Age

iii) In the 'NSRT Overall' spreadsheet the 'Headline Age Level - Short' worksheets, showing the breakdown of short qualifications, have been removed, and the short qualification breakdown has been included in the 'Age Length Level' worksheets

**c) Removal of Columns**

A number of columns have been removed from the tables as the data in them is either shown elsewhere or is little used.

i) ‘Headline Age Level SR’ worksheet in the ‘NSRT Overall’ spreadsheet

Columns ‘A Level’, ‘A2 Level’, ‘AS Level’, ‘BTEC/OCR’, IB, GCSE, NVQ and OTHER have been removed. The values in these columns are present on the ‘Qualification Type SR’ worksheet

ii) ‘A, AS Levels, GCSEs, IBs’, BTEC OCR’ and ‘NVQ’ worksheets in the ‘NSRT A AS NVQ BTEC IB GCSE’ spreadsheet

Columns ‘Starts Including Transfers’, ‘No. of Transfers Out’, ‘No. of Continuing’, ‘No. of Completers’, ‘No. of Retained (inc Continuing)’, No. of Achievers’, ‘Known Outcome’, ‘No. of Exams Taken Awaiting Result’, ‘No. of completed aims where exam result is not yet known’ have been removed iii) All worksheets in the ‘NSRT Other Qualifications’ spreadsheet

Columns ‘Starts Including Transfers’, ‘No. of Transfers Out’, ‘No. of Continuing’, ‘No. of Completers’, ‘No. of Retained (inc Continuing)’, ‘No. of Achievers’, ‘Known Outcome’, ‘No. of Exams Taken Awaiting Result’, ‘No. of completed aims where exam result is not yet known’ have been removed.

d) Display of Gender, Ethnicity and Learning Difficulty / Disability in the ‘NSRT Overall’ spreadsheet

The information for Gender, Ethnicity and Learning Difficulty / Disability has been split into individual worksheets, to match the method of presentation on the Institutions worksheets.

e) Removal of Duration and Replacement by Length

Where worksheets contained both Duration and Length the Duration column has been removed and additional aggregations have been added to the Length field. Where worksheets only contained Duration this has been replaced by Length.

f) Suppression Rules

The data suppression rules have been changed.

- Cohorts with fewer than 5 leavers are not output
- Cohorts where the number of leavers is 5 or more but less than 30 have the number of leavers replaced with a dash (-)

On the percentiles worksheets:

- If there are 20 or more providers the 10th, 25th, median (50th), 75th and 90th percentiles are output.
- If there are between 11 and 19 providers only the median (50th) percentile is output.
- If there are 10 or fewer providers no percentiles are output.

2. Some of the provision that is unique to my institution doesn’t appear on your tables. Why has this been omitted?

The success rates tables are built from identifiable cohorts of learners undertaking learning aims expected to end in a particular year. Where a cohort is made up of fewer than 5 learners, or is made up of learners at a single institution, these small cohorts have been excluded from display in order to prevent individual’s achievements being identified. However, these cohorts are still included in higher level aggregates of the data.

3. How can I find out which qualifications have been excluded from the reports because they are only offered by 1 provider or have fewer than 5 learners nationally?

The ‘Excluded Qualifications’ report shows summary details of every aim that has been excluded from the main reports. The report also indicates the reason(s) for exclusion. 4. **The number of leavers for the sub-cohorts don’t add up to number for the total cohort. Why is this?**

There are two possible reasons for this:

(i) the number of leavers is rounded to the nearest 10 at all levels

(ii) extremely small cohorts of achievers (fewer than 5 learners) are suppressed from the published tables in order to prevent the risk of possible identification of individuals’ successes. However, these extremely small cohorts’ figures are still included in the higher level cohort totals.

5. **How is the success rate calculated?**

In simple terms the success rate is the number of aims achieved divided by the number started expressed as a percentage.

6. **How is the achievement rate calculated?**

In simple terms the achievement rate is the number of aims achieved divided by the number actually completed expressed as a percentage.

7. **How is the retention rate calculated?**

In simple terms the retention rate is the number of aims actually completed divided by the number started expressed as a percentage.

8. **Why are there achievement rates of over 100%?**

In a very small number of cases Achievement Rates greater than 100% are recorded. These include valid cases within the agreed methodology where transfers that achieve their aims have been correctly recorded as achievements.

9. **What qualifications are not included?**

The main exclusions from the tables are Key Skills, Functional Skills and OLASS provision.

Other exclusions are documented in the Classroom Based Learning QSR Business Rules.

10. **What is a ‘start’?**

A ‘start’ is a learning aim that is planned to end in the year and the learner:

- has not transferred within the provider
- is funded by the Skills Funding Agency or the Education Funding Agency
- is not under 16 at start of learning
- did not withdraw in the first six weeks

11. My institution delivers the International Baccalaureate. Where can I find National Success Rates figures for this qualification?

International Baccalaureate qualifications data can be found in the 'A, A2, AS, GCSE and IB' worksheet of the “A, A2, AS, NVQ, BTEC, IB & GCSEs” tables.

12. My institution delivers 14-19 Diplomas. Where can I find National Success Rates figures for this qualification?

14-19 Diplomas qualifications data are included in the “Other Qualifications” tables.

13. Why are there are no percentile worksheets for Local Authorities by Learner Home Postcode and Delivery Location Postcode?

Local Authorities by Postcode percentile worksheets would have many occurrences of small cohorts. The equal weighting of each cohort may have a significant bearing on the variability of the measures presented. As a consequence they are not included in the Education and Training National Success Rates Tables.

14. Why can I not open the zip file?

Users who encounter this problem should ensure that they have an appropriate zip tool installed for them to be able to open the file. The Data Service can provide a link to free software: http://www.winzip.com/trialpay.htm

15. How do I find out more?

If you would like any more information about the Education & Training National Success Rates Tables please contact our Service Desk on 0870 267 0001 or email servicedesk@thedataservice.org.uk.

Please be aware that the Data Service is responsible for producing National Success Rate Tables in accordance with the Classroom Based Provision Qualifications Success Rates business rules approved by the Skills Funding Agency. The business rules and technical specification are available at the Success Rate pages of the Data Service website.

Providers will find answers to most of their queries regarding the Education & Training National Success Rates Tables in the guidance document or in these frequently asked questions. It is strongly recommended that providers refer to these sources before contacting the Data Service.

If providers need further help, the Data Service will be pleased to receive queries regarding the Education & Training National Success Rates tables. However, when logging a query with the Data Service please provide a detailed explanation of the query being raised.

Published by: The Data Service Version: 1 Date: 25 April 2013